Chapter 5 - THE NIGHT THE LIGHTS WENT OUT
Luca ordered the mansion locked down.
Every entrance was checked. The security footage was copied. The police were called, though Luca's men also began their own investigation. The photograph had been taken from inside Isabella's bedroom, which meant the person who left it had been close enough to stand beside her bed.
I found Isabella sitting on the floor with her notebook pressed against her chest.
She was not crying. That frightened me more.
I knelt in front of her.
Are you scared?
She nodded.
Did someone come into my room?
I nodded slowly.
Will they come back?
I took both her hands.
We are going to make your room safe. You will not be alone.
She signed, I don't want to sleep here.
“You can sleep in my room tonight,” I said. “Or with your father. You choose.”
She pointed toward Luca.
He knelt beside her.
You can sleep with me. I'll stay until morning.
She climbed into his arms.
***
At midnight, the electricity failed.
The emergency lights came on, but the security monitors went black. Somewhere in the house, an alarm began to pulse.
Luca was already moving. He handed Isabella to me and told us to stay in the interior hallway.
“Don't open the door for anyone.”
“Even your men?”
“Especially until you hear my voice.”
He disappeared down the corridor.
Isabella clutched my sleeve. I signed slowly, Breathe with me.
She followed my hands, drawing in air and letting it out.
A crash sounded downstairs.
Then a man's voice shouted.
I moved Isabella into the linen room and locked the door. It had no windows and a heavy wooden frame. I pushed a cabinet in front of it.
She looked at me.
Are they coming?
“I don't know,” I whispered. Then I signed, We are staying together.
Footsteps approached.
A key scraped against the lock.
I placed myself between Isabella and the door.
Then I heard Luca's voice.
“Claire. Open it.”
I moved the cabinet and unlocked the door.
Luca stood there with two guards. His shirt was torn at the shoulder, and a thin line of blood ran along his temple.
Isabella rushed toward him.
He caught her and signed, I'm okay.
She touched the blood.
You are hurt.
“It's nothing,” he said, then corrected himself in ASL. A small cut. I'll be fine.
He looked at me.
“Someone got into the west wing through the service passage. We caught one man. The other escaped.”
“Did he come here?”
“He was heading toward Isabella's room.”
My stomach turned.
Luca looked at his daughter and closed his eyes for a moment.
“I'm sorry.”
Isabella signed, You came.
He nodded.
Always.
***
The man they caught was named Paul Reddick. He had worked as a driver for Bellini Holdings and had been paid to photograph Isabella. He refused to identify who ordered the break-in.
Luca wanted to question him himself. Richard Sloane advised that the police handle the interview.
“You cannot make him talk,” Richard said. “And anything you do could damage the case.”
Luca looked ready to argue.
I stepped forward.
“Isabella needs you here more than that man needs your attention.”
Luca stared at me.
For a moment, I thought I had overstepped.
Then he handed his phone to the guard.
“Let the police take him.”
That night, Luca slept in a chair beside Isabella's bed. I stayed until dawn. When the sun came up, the little girl woke and signed that she wanted pancakes.
It was the most ordinary request in the world.
And it felt like a victory.
***
The next afternoon, investigators found a second phone hidden in the service passage. It contained messages between Paul and an unknown number.
One message read:
The girl must be moved before the hearing. If Moretti keeps control, we lose everything.
Another said:
The housekeeper is a problem. Find out what she knows.
I read the messages over Luca's shoulder.
“Who is the hearing about?” I asked.
Richard answered. “A guardianship review. Someone has filed a petition claiming Luca's lifestyle makes him an unsuitable guardian.”
Luca's face hardened.
“Who filed it?”
Richard looked down at the document.
“Victor Bellini.”
The petition claimed that Isabella was being exposed to danger because of her father's criminal associations. It also alleged that she was emotionally neglected and unable to communicate freely within the household.
I felt sick.
Vanessa had spent weeks silencing Isabella, and now her family intended to use that silence as evidence against Luca.
“They created the problem,” I said, “and now they're using it to take her away.”
Luca looked at the photograph on the table.
“Yes,” he said. “And they are not finished.”
The day after the break-in, the police interviewed every member of the household. Mrs. Carter was shaken, but she answered each question clearly. The guards provided access logs and camera records. I described the sound of the footsteps outside the linen room and the way the lock had turned.
Isabella was interviewed separately by Dr. Patel, with an interpreter present. She was allowed to draw instead of answer questions she did not want to discuss.
She drew a dark hallway and a door with a large lock.
Then she drew herself holding my hand.
Dr. Patel asked what the picture meant.
Isabella signed, I was scared, but Claire stayed.
The therapist asked whether she felt safe now.
Isabella looked toward Luca, who waited outside the room.
I feel safer when Daddy tells me what is happening.
Dr. Patel explained that children often become more frightened when adults hide every detail from them. Isabella did not need to know every security concern, but she deserved clear explanations about changes that affected her life.
Luca listened carefully.
That evening, he told Isabella that the house would have new security procedures. He explained that she would have a different driver and that no visitor could enter her room without permission. He also told her that the man who had entered the house had been caught.
Isabella asked whether she had to stop playing in the garden.
“No,” Luca said, then signed, We will make the garden safe. You still get to play.
She thought about it.
Can I choose where the guards stand?
Luca smiled.
Yes. You can tell us what makes you comfortable.
She chose one guard near the gate and another by the side path, far enough away that she would not feel watched.
It was a small decision, but it gave her some control over a situation that had frightened her.
Later, Luca told me he had never realized how often adults made decisions around Isabella without asking her.
“She's nine,” he said.
“She is also the person living with the consequences.”
He nodded.
“I need to remember that.”
The security team later discovered that the intruder had not entered through a broken window or forced door. He had used a maintenance key that had been copied months earlier.
That detail unsettled Mrs. Carter more than the break-in itself.
“It means someone had been planning this for a long time,” she said.
Luca called a staff meeting. He did not shout or threaten anyone. He explained what had happened, told the staff that the police were investigating, and invited anyone with information to speak privately with the investigator.
He also made one thing clear: no employee would be punished for reporting a suspicious request, even if it involved a senior member of the household.
Some staff members looked surprised.
After the meeting, a young kitchen assistant approached Mrs. Carter. She said Vanessa had once asked her to leave the study unlocked while she was away. The assistant had refused, but she had been afraid to tell anyone because Vanessa was about to become the lady of the house.
The investigator recorded her statement.
Luca thanked her personally.
It was a small moment, but I noticed how much it mattered to her. For the first time, she did not have to choose between obeying a powerful person and protecting herself.
That evening, Isabella asked whether the staff were in trouble.
“No,” Luca signed. “They are helping us make the house safer.”
She nodded.
Then thank them.
May you like
He did.
Mrs. Carter later told me that the staff had never been invited to help shape household rules before. She said it made her feel that the house belonged to the people who cared for it, not only the people whose names were on the gate. Before bed, Luca checked the new lock on Isabella's door with her. He showed her how it worked and let her practice opening it from inside. She asked him to leave the hallway light on. He did, without telling her she was too old to need it. Isabella asked whether she could bring the star pin to the hearing and show it to the judge. Luca told her she could bring anything that made her feel comfortable. She tucked it into the pocket of her cardigan and checked twice that it was still there.
